blood, sin, and short-shorts...

I think everyone could identify a piece of their past that they regret, if they search deep enough. There is probably a lil something that you'd not want to be connected to you. Something that you did, something that was done to you, a way you reacted, something you didn't say when you should have. There are normally things that haunt us and that we try to move on from and forget.

I think that is normally the case.

There is one piece of our past identity that we absolutely love to hold onto though. It is something that enables us and stops us from ever reach our full potential, but we embrace it... not in spite of it.. but because of it. It is the ultimate excuse and it makes us feel humble. It allows us to be part of the worlds largest self-help focused support group.

sinner

We love to be identified as this. It is our excuse.

This is a rather messed up concept.

I ran track in high school. I wasn't the best.. but thinking back, I was pretty good at what I did. Ok, I was one of the best.. at least in our conference. I ran hurdles in both the 110 high and 300 intermediate. I ended up going to state in the 300's. What was that noise you say? Oh, my horn just tooted a little, but there is a point to be found here.

Let me tell you about this event.

The 300 meter intermediate hurdles, which I would argue is the most difficult running event in track, is a dead sprint curving around 3/4 of the track with 8 obstacles reaching nearly three feet in height. You cannot just turn off your mind and run real fast. You need to run as fast as you possibly can while navigating turns, counting steps, and clearing obstacles... and you are surrounded and distracted by others doing the exact same thing with different timing. It is as mentally straining as it is physically challenging.

I still remember my first 300 race... it was brutal.

I was a freshman in high school and a pretty small guy. Not that I am a mammoth now, but freshman year of high school the high hurdle went up to my belly button, and if I remember correctly, the low hurdle was 3 inches shorter than that.

I had trained a little bit and the time had come for my first actual 300 intermediate race.

"On your marks"

So I go to the blocks and nervously take off my warmups. The track shorts were intimidating enough, now I had to run a race I had only trained for up to this point. I was on the blocks, waiting for an eternity to be released, so I could unleash my full athletic glory to the crowd of eager spectators. As soon as I thought the quietness would overtake me, I hear...

"Get set!"

I am set. I was born for this... right? With my butt up in the air, my heart beating like a timpani, and adrenaline saturating my veins.. I hear it.

!!BANG!!

I sprint like a madman. the first hurdle approaches, I calculate my steps... I clear it! Yes... continue sprinting.. I am a machine. I clear a few more hurdles and pay no attention to the other hurdlers.. I am in "the zone" There are just a a few more hurdles to go... but... wait... what there is something happening to my body. Did my alternator just putter out? All the energy in my 15 year old body vanished in seconds.. but somehow my legs kept moving. I managed to clear the next hurdle... my wobbly legs barely able to support my body, gasping for air as my heart tells my brain I am about to die, and my brain tells my legs that the race is not over. I keep running, if you could call it that.. at this point i was more like a toddler in a controlled fall. With all the energy I had left, I attempted to clear the next hurdle.

I didn't make it.

My body became entangled in the wood and metal structure, catching my legs and holding me awkwardly captive until my soft tissue grated against the ground staining the track with blood and pride.

I got up and somehow managed to pass over the final hurdle and finished the race dead last and disqualified, a little bit bloodied, a little more humble, and ready to train for the next race.


So... that happened to me, and I remember it very clearly. When I think back to my time as a hurdler, that painful event is not what I identify myself by. As my I matured as a hurdler my objective was never "not to fall". My objective was to clear the hurdles with grace and speed, and to do so faster than anyone else. I was a hurdler and I learned from the time I fell but did not base my identity on that time.

Is this making sense?


I had fallen - but my identity was not failure.

We have sinned - but our identity is not sinner.


As I mentioned.. we love this identity, and these are a few reasons why...

- False sense of humility
- Excuses our shortcomings
- Does not require effort or growth
- It is very comfortable
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You can list others, I don't want to write any more of that.

This is the deal with being a sinner. If you have accepted the salvation offered by Christ, this title no longer applies to you, and for you to keep it cheapens the sacrifice he made and also implies that you're sins were not paid for.

Christ did not just die for our sins, He died AS our sins... trippy concept, huh?

That's right.

His blood paid the price of the new covenant God made with man it resembled the one God made with Abraham ... it was a blood covenant.

It was a bonding between God and Man where both sides of the pact share such a close relationship with each other that all they have or possess in this life is available to each upon demand. If this covenant was broken it it was at the cost of life. Can you guess which side didn't have what it took to carry this through? This is the reason man would sacrifice beasts to God and why Leviticus is filled with all the rules and regulations for how to do this. This was blood shed for our shortcomings of the blood covenant made between God and Man. It was the sin offering.

So, much failure and many years later, what happened?... a New Covenant.

with a very significant change.

This Covenant was between Jesus - Son of God and Son of Man.. and with God the Father.

Jesus represents Man in this new covenant...

Christs blood shed for us for the forgiveness of sins. Christ paid the price as our sins.

Bottom line.

Romans 6 talks all about this stuff. It says we are no longer slaves to sin...

So, let us stop acting as though we are still sinners if we have in fact been set free.

our identity is in Christ.